Monday, July 30, 2012

Berg Insight, a research firm in Goteborg, Sweden, says the number of machine-to-machine devices using the world’s wireless networks reached 108 million in 2011 and will at least triple that by 2017. Ericsson, the leading maker of wireless network equipment, sees as many as 50 billion machines connected by 2020. Only 10 billion or so are likely to be cellphones and tablet computers. The rest will be machines, talking not to us, but to each other.

I meant to get into this topic, where are the new Watsons going to get data? From micro sensors everywhere, and in return the Watsons are going to control micro bots everywhere.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The state lawmaker who this month cast a deciding vote on funding for California high-speed rail now wants to delay a portion of the controversial project.
Despite early agreements to send the train through downtown Bakersfield, state Sen. Michael Rubio said Monday that the Bakersfield City Council, the Kern County Board of Supervisors and those who have participated in the project no longer support that route.
Instead, Rubio is asking the rail authority to "delay the project during the environmental impact review stage so that further consideration can be made for an alternate route that doesn't go through downtown," he said.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/07/23/2919867/delay-sought-on-bakersfield-high.html#storylink=cpy

The idea was to run the train right through the largest high school in B Town, a billion dollar cost. Now, even brain dead Bakersfield politicians grasp the obvious, they want the route moved to the south of town. The entire route needs to be moved west, away from civilization, about 15-30 miles.

The recent bankruptcy filings of three California cities have U.S. investors worried that Fresno could be next to go down this road, according to a major Wall Street financial house.
Vikram Rai, strategist with Citigroup Inc., said bond investors are increasingly asking about the financial health of Fresno out of concern that the city will seek court protection from its debt obligations and that millions of investment dollars will be lost.
By Kurtis Alexander and George Hostetter - The Fresno Bee
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/07/23/2919873/fresno-bonds-worry-market-amid.html#storylink=cpy

They told me our accounting was virtuous! I say, go for it, nothing like a good bankruptcy to shake things up.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

The fledgling NoSQL marketplace is going through a rapid transition – from the predominantly community-driven platform development to a more mature application-driven market. Scaling up web infrastructure on NoSQL basis have proven successful for Facebook, Digg and Twitter. Successful attempts have been made to develop NOSQL applications in the biotechnology, defense and image/signal processing. Interest in using key-value pair (KVP) technology has reemerged to the point where the traditional RDMS vendors evaluate strategy of developing in-house NoSQL solutions and integrating them in current product offers. It will not take long before we’ll see acquisitions driven by emerging NoSQL technology. The future deals will likely be made to better compete both in platform offering and in vertical market segments. Market Research

The driver here is the IBM Watson, I think, plus my own work, naturally! And this:

Open ... and Shut Just a few short years ago, MySQL was the undisputed king of the open-source database hill. But with the NoSQL market emerging at an 82 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), it's looking like MySQL may get bulldozed by its NoSQL peers. UK Register

A few years ago I tried to talk to these people, but they were unable to listen. Now the roles are reversed: the JSON join now rules the computing world and all things SQL must be restructured to thye JSON join architecture.
Am I going to write software? No, my imaginary company moved me from technology to market research, sorry.

Rep. Buck McKeon, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and one of the most outspoken critics of the automatic defense cuts, is one of the few members to admit he now regrets voting for the Budget Control Act.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78639.html#ixzz21HbF6MPM
The California Republican “was assured by his leadership that the cuts won’t happen,” said his spokesman, Claude Chafin.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78639.html#ixzz21Hb9Nel6

Citizen's who are confused, let me explain. National Parties of Oligarchs cannot guarantee enything, they cannot even guarantee debt service payments. Only legitimate government guarantees, and California does not have legitimate government in DC, we do not have our share of Senate seats.
Hence, neither national oligarch can guarantee anything from California unless a California democratic process occurs. That is why most oligarchs go away, or are shot or exiled; they cannot guarantee anything.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Fact one: On July 13, CalSTRS, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, reported a 1.8% return on its investments in the 2011-12 fiscal year. Its actuarial assumed rate of return is 7.5 %. Its chief executive officer, Jack Ehnes, said in a press release, “Investment returns alone cannot place CalSTRS on a solid financial footing. “ He called for state government action for a “long-term funding plan that includes gradual, predictable and fair contribution increases for all parties involved.” CalSTRS is the second-largest public pension fund in the U.S.Fact Two: On July 16, the largest public pension plan in the U.S., the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) said it earned 1% on its investments in the fiscal year ended June 30. Its so-called discount rate also is 7.5%. WSJ

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

BRT is an enhanced system with modern buses operating on separate lanes or other transitways. By running on special lanes isolated from traffic, BRT combines the flexibility of buses with the efficiency of rail. And with high-tech vehicles and advanced infrastructure, BRT operates at faster speeds than conventional bus service while also providing greater reliability and increased customer convenience. Here

Constrast that with Fresno's Train to Nowhere. Why did Jim Cantos and LaHood saddle Fresno with an 1880s technology when Fresno could be running High Speed Lane Guided BRT between Visalia and Fresno?

The original Fresno stimulus proposal had us building a high speed Bus lane down the old Highway 99 meridian. We wanted BRT to travel at speeds up to 140 MPH. Costs would have been low and Fresno State would be the technology center for high speed BRT.
But no, Google wants that business for the Bay Area. That is why the SF and LA opted out of the Nowhere Train, these two metropolitan regions intend to tear out light rail and use the right of way for high speed guided BRT.

By the way, we got out of the last recession by tearing out rail and making way for the rubber wheel. The rubber tire had something rail systems can never have, a steering wheel. Now that Google and Seimens are working on ultra fast BRT on guided lanes we will repeat the pattern, replacing rail with the intelligent rubber wheel.
Across the globe metropolitan transit districts are getting the picture. BRT is much faster and more efficient than the car with guided speeds above 100 MPH. BRT and the steering wheel make the last mile of travel accessible to bus in a way that rail cannot compete. In San Jose, the plan is to rip out the useless San Jose Light Rail and put guided BRT on the right of way, a passenger will be able to travel, single stop, from San Jose Airport to San Francisco aiport faster than the connection can be made by airplane.
No brainer, intelligent BRT wins and Fresno gets stuck with a bunch of useless steel.

There seems to be some collusion between the separate party leaders in DC. Both extremes of the parties want to run up another few trillion in debt and then, hit California with the bill. Unfortunately, for them, it looks right now like the sequestered budget is going through.
I hear a lot of talk in California about no longer sending our money to DC. The last tax hike referendum, on cigarettes, had a ring about not sending our tax money out of state. I also hear a lot about No Taxation Without Representation in the letters to the editor section. This bodes ill for the DC oligarchs.
I dunno what to tell Californians except the distortion in Senate representation is causing the fiscal cliff phenomena. It is one or the other, either DC goes belly up or California does, we cannot have two central governments in California, we are going to have to choose; or the Senate will choose for us.

Cheney, who served in Congress in the 1970s and ’80s, will speak to Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s GOP whip team Tuesday evening and is expected to drop by a meeting of the Elected Leadership Committee, a group that includes Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other GOP leaders. Freaking out over the sequester thing

Unfortunately for Dicky and the other Republicans that ran up $12T in debt, it is time to get California paid up on its debt service. California is not too fond of paying for a bunch of welfare bums in the Republican Communist Party, so, sorry Dicky, deficits do matter.
Boy, those dumbshit Republicans sure wish they had the $400 B wasted on Strategic Definse! Or the $100 B wasted on the B-1, remember that wasted pice of crap from Reagan, the Communist? Or how about the two WW2 battleships Reagan spent billions on, and only used once, to shell some Arab neighborhoods.
Then there is the so called Tea Party, a group of welfare bums who love to deny Americans a fair Senate vote, they love the king's navy, and they are all from small Republican welfare states with more Senate voting power. These welfare bums are not American, they would be royalists, lovers of the King, cowards in any other community.
Now the Obamney wants to run up another 5T in debt and hires the debt queen herself, Condi 'Borrow n Spend' Rice.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Orchestrated by Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, top Virginia Republicans issued a series of statements Thursday accusing Obama of presiding over “radical” cuts that would harm the state’s economy as well as national security. The effort highlighted not only how competitive Virginia is expected to be in this year’s presidential race, but also the new hurdles that loom for Obama in a state he won in 2008 with a six-point margin.

While swinging through the East Coast, Obamney, the Republican, indicated that California has no responsibility top pay for any of the massive spending he plans. Small state governors throughout America stepped up and gladly agreed to cover California's portion of debt service.

Everywhere the Obamney goes, the electorate will be reminded of the 12 T in debt run up by Republican Small State conservatives. Condi is the poster child for Republican Big Government spending.
Romney goes to a solid Republican state and the question become:
"Who is going to pay for all the debt that Condi intends to run up?"

Thursday, July 12, 2012

In the U.S. – land of the gas-guzzler SUV and 24/7 air conditioning – energy efficiency isn’t known as a strong suit. The country’s power management efforts are so poor that a new report ranks it near the bottom of the pack of major economies. Here

Something is going on at the LA Times, I tell you. Behibnd the scnese? The promise that intelligent high speed bus rapid transit will trigger a revolution in transportation. The Las Vegas casibno owners are pushing this. They look at high speed BRT dropping off 100 passengers at a time to their front doors, direct from down town LA.

By Phil Willon, Catherine Saillant and Abby Sewell, Los Angeles Times
July 12, 2012
Facing the same financial stressors that pushed San Bernardino toward bankruptcy, cities across California are slashing day-to-day services and taking other drastic actions to skirt a similar fiscal collapse.
For some, it may not be enough.
San Bernardino on Tuesday became the third California city to seek bankruptcy protection in the last month and, while no one expects the state to be consumed by municipal insolvencies, other cities teeter on the abyss.
LA Times

The LA Times has been on a streak lately, praising Bus Rapid Transit and condemning most forms of rail. They are on the restructuring kick.

Anyway, what is going on is that Calpers bet a 7.5% investment gain and the global recession hit, they are losing their shirt.

Murray Rothbard hammers Reagan Big Government socialists.
He is right about the American tradition of stiffing the oligarchs and their debts. Did the American revolutionaries pay the King's debts after the revolution? Does California intend to send debt service payments to DC? In both cases the answer is hell no.

Economists are all too aware of the fact that one's time has economic value. (You don't have to look too far, for example, to see an economist rant about how "free" things aren't really free if you have to wait in line for an hour for them.) Therefore, fields of research that study lines, and the time spent waiting in them, are pretty relevant to the field of economics.Maybe I'm biased on this issue because I studied queueing theory and operations research before I started graduate school for economics, but I find it fascinating that not only is queueing theory relevant to traditional neoclassical economics, but work on the psychology of lines is also relevant to behavioral economics. (Fun fact: queueing theory has focused on the psychology of lines since the mid-1900's, whereas behavioral economics is still a field working its way into the mainstream.) Specifically, people think a lot about the fairness of various queueing systems, according to "Dr. Queue" Richard Larson (my thesis advisor, coincidentally), and it stands to reason that this perceived (dis)utilty from waiting in line affects the valuation of the items that people are waiting in line for. Jodi Beggs

Jodi, your insite is worth a Nobel prize. I also am a queue watcher. One simple rule covers 90% of macroeconomics: No one likes to be third in line.
Anyway readers, watch this economist, she will have many valuable insites as a queue watcher.

His blog has consistently denied the need for fair voting of Senators. His party, the Democratic Progressives are official supporters of the oligarch, as are the Republican Conservatives. Along with the Chinese Communists, these three parties are the sole remaining holdouts for oligarchal rule in the developed world.

The founders understood the need to supply enough senators to keep democracy. A simple resolution by the Senate will, in a single instant, banish oligarchs from the US for the next 50 years. Small state senators, worrying about bankruptcy, will simply adopt a resolution forcing new senate seats onto the large states and all the deranged schemes of the DC oligarchs will be restructured.

What is the value of a fair senate vote? If the Senate distributed 28 more Senators to the large states, without any doubt, 6T in DC debt will be wiped off the books as high government multipliers take hold across the layers of government.
Had the Obama administration enforced democracy in the large states, and kept the budget balanced; then we would have zero debt today.

The value of democracy, 6T, plus the additional 5T the oligarchs have borroed; together make 11T, the amount of debt the Republicans left just before the crash. Unfortunately, Obama would prefer bankruptcy than democracy.

Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, D-Los Angeles, claimed that building the high-speed train system would be the answer to the state’s economic crisis. And he wasn’t alone in this claim. Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, said that the state would reap tax revenue for putting people back to work.

Nonsense. BRT is winning in LA, beating light rail. Anything under 300 miles, High Speed Bus Rapid transit wins. High speed bus rapid transit beats any car from 50-150 miles in range. High Speed Bus Rapid Transit is, over the whole trip, has 10 times the efficiency of Choo Choo. The only transportation system more efficient than High Speed Bus Rapid Transit is the airplane on ranges greater than 300 mile.
Europe, Seimens can build bus rapid transit with low cost, modular, single track BRT lanes, beating rail construction costs by 60%. European technologists already have bus rapid transit prototypes operating at 140 MPH.
The debate is over, High Speed Bus Rapid Transit is so profitable is can likely be done without any government money.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Forget about probabilities and statistics and measures of so-called leading indicators (such as the stock market which does not lead), and the yield curve that is useless when zero-bound. Instead, simply focus on data from around the globe, especially new orders.

I am going to wait, then look at my favorite indicator and see if it was correct, lloking backwards. I have no incentive to predict.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Compulsory voting, as exists in Australia and more than two
dozen other countries, would fix that problem. As William Galston
of the Brookings Institution argues, “Jury duty is mandatory; why
not voting?”
Mandating voting has a clear effect: It raises participation
rates. Before Australia adopted compulsory voting in 1924, for
example, it had turnout rates similar to those of the U.S. After
voting became mandatory, participation immediately jumped from 59
percent in the election of 1922 to 91 percent in the election of
1925.
Reason has the story.

Peter Orzag knows perfectly well that California and the other major states do not have a fair vote for the Senate. Last time looked, the Senate owes California eight Senators. This idiot fails to mention that that No Taxation without Representation overrules the Constitution and thus the Supreme court. It is a moral and legal rule that precedes the American revolt and goes back to old England. Further the Constitution recognizes the problem of large states and permits the creation of Senate seats to correct the problem. Obama picks simpletons for advisers, as we are starting to recognize.
Nor does this idiot understand Krugman Agglomeration Theory as applied to layered government.
Instead of mandatory voting, the California forces of independence has issued an arrest warrant for the Oligarch Orzag and any of his supporters.
California does not have to break up, there is no restriction against having Senate districts within California.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Worse than jury rigging

Brown’s antics are making Democrats in other states look like Boy Scouts, with this latest attempt to manipulate the November election.
Brown and state Democrats have so much riding on the passage of his income and sales tax initiative, that the Legislature just passed a bogus budget using anticipated revenue from passage of the hefty new taxes.
The Legislature and Governor not only increased spending this year, they obviously are confident they will squeeze it out of taxpayers one way or another. Democrats have become so cocky, this budget isn’t just out of balance, it is banking on futures.
This is a textbook case of counting your chickens before they hatch. Here

I am not sure why the budget even qualified as balanced under the rules. But Brown and the legislature are back to the giveaways, setasides, banking on futures, etc etc etc